Big Bad Buick
1972 Buick Riviera
With muscle cars all the rage these days, the race is on to find the next barn find Camaro, Mustang or Cuda. Unfortunately, this not only makes the prices of these more popular cars skyrocket, but it also makes them a common sight at car shows and events, resulting in a yawn from spectators instead of the customary thumbs up.
The purpose of the Big Bad Buick project was to encourage people to think outside the box and pick a project that’s unique and affordable, instead of popular and expensive. A prime example of that are the Boattail Buick Rivieras from the early 70’s. These massive cars were one of the most uniquely designed cars to ever hit the road and with 455 cubic inches under the hood, they have the potential to destroy most challengers at the stoplight... with four passengers in the car!
Since these big, 70’s luxury cars are not a mainstream muscle car, the prices of these kinds of cars are still low enough for someone on a tight budget to get one and have a lot of fun with it!
Original Manufacturer Specifications
The Buick Riviera is a personal luxury car produced by Buick from 1963 to 1999. GM's first entry into that prestige niche, the Riviera was highly praised by automotive journalists upon its high-profile debut. While early models stayed close to the original form, eight subsequent generations varied substantially over the Riviera's thirty-year lifespan. In all, 1,127,261 were produced.
The Riviera name had been used by Buick since the early 1950s for various prestige versions of existing models, right through a large top-of-the-line six-window 1962 Electra 225 hardtop. The crisply styled, ground-up design that debuted 1963 was Buick's first unique Riviera model, and pioneered the GM E platform. The Riviera name was resurrected for concept cars displayed at auto shows in 2007 and 2013 in hopes of reintroducing the marque, but no plans to do so are currently in place.
Unlike its subsequent GM E platform stablemates, the Oldsmobile Toronado and Cadillac Eldorado, the Riviera was initially a standard front engine/rear-wheel drive platform, only becoming front wheel drive starting in 1979 as part of a sweeping move in that direction by the American automobile industry.
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33,728
1st Year Production - with 2,171 being GSs
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$2,851
Factory Price
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4,497 lbs
Weight
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121.9"
Wheelbase
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218.3"
Overall Length
